Located on the island of Floreana in the Galapagos Islands is a barrel on a stick just inland enough to not be impacted by the tides. This barrel (or one like it) has been used as a post station dating back to the whalers of the 1700’s. Sailors would drop off post for home and pick up anything that was heading to their next destination for hand delivery.

This practice still happens today, but in the form of postcards from tourists. Anyone that stops by is encouraged to leave a post card behind, and take any that are addressed to someone ‘near’ your own home. We took 2 postcards with us addressed for Maryland. Not close, but not far either, it is just Maryland. I am happy to say that we did our duty and dropped off our postcards last weekend during our drive home from West Virginia. The story of how it went down couldn’t get better if I sat and wrote a script of the perfect scenario.

We took 2 postcards from the Galapagos Islands that were in the same handwriting and addressed to 2 homes that were about 15 minutes apart, Gaithersburg and Derwood, Maryland. I wrote up a little note that explained who we were and what we did, in case nobody was home. We stopped at the first house and rang the doorbell. Nothing. Quite a disappointment. We left the postcard and the note in between 2 Amazon packages on the front porch. We loaded up to head to the next address. Someone was outside as we pulled up. I asked if so-and-so lived here and she skeptically said yes. As quickly as I could I explained I was here to hand deliver a post card from the Galapagos Islands. She caught on quickly and said it was from her son, to his sister, the lady’s daughter. She got really excited, started laughing and invited us in. As we were walking in the house I mentioned having just left another post card behind at another address in Derwood. She got a crooked face on while thinking and then exclaimed, “That’s my parents! They are inside right now!”

So we went inside for a few minutes and a few pictures. She text messaged her son in Boston while we were there to let him know his post cards showed up. It was truly a magical moment that gave hope to any happiness in humanity. So glad I was able to be a part of something so unique, special, and that brought so much joy to a bunch of people.